Captain Britain (Brian Braddock)
| HistoryText = and Louise Cassell]]Brian Braddock, son of the recently deceased scientist Sir James Braddock, was a physics student at London's Thames University. He felt guilty because he had been enjoying the company of his then girlfriend Valerie Campbell when a mysterious explosion killed his parents. While Brian was on work experience at the top secret Darkmoor Research Centre arranged by his mentor, Dr Travis, he became endangered by the nuclear terrorist Joshua Stragg's attempt to raid the facility. Fleeing to seek help on his motorbike, he crashed near Darkmoor's circle of standing stones. The wizard Merlyn and his daughter Roma, Goddess of the Northern Skies, appeared to Braddock and told him he had been chosen for a special destiny. He was ordered to choose between two artifacts, the Sword of Might and the Amulet of Right. Choosing the Amulet, Braddock was transformed into Captain Britain. After defeating Stragg (whom the Sword of Might had transformed into the super-villain Reaver), Braddock returned to London and embarked on a new career as a superhero. Braddock faced a number of foes in the next few months, including the insane weatherman named Hurricane, the deranged ornithologist Lord Hawk, the hypnotist Doctor Synne, the crime boss Vixen and the mysterious Mastermind (who unexpectedly turned out to be a hologram generated by the crazed sentient computer built in the basement of Brian's ancestral home, Braddock Manor, by his late father; Mastermind had in fact killed Brian's parents) as well as the Highwayman and his employer the Manipulator, the demonic Nykonn, the mad geneticist Doctor Claw, vampiric nobleman the Black Baron, the Nazi villain known as the Red Skull (whom Captain Britain fought alongside Captain America (Steve Rogers)), the alien called The Lurker from Loch Ness and the man who would become his arch foe, the assassin Slaymaster. He also discovered that his sister Betsy had powerful mental powers and found himself at odds with the obsessive police detective Chief Inspector Dai Thomas, who hated masked vigilantes, and his aide Inspector Kate Fraser. But it was following a trip to New York and a meeting with the adventurer Spider-Man that Brian's life changed again forever. Returning from America after defeating the assassin Arcade with Spider-Man's assistance, Brian found himself under psychic attack and leaped screaming from the plane he was in, crashing into the sea off the coast of Cornwall. He lived there in a cave for some months, an amnesiac hermit, until he was discovered by the heroic Black Knight. The pair went on a quest in the extra-dimensional realm of Otherworld to bring King Arthur back from the dead and save Camelot from the forces of Mordred and Necromon. Along the way, Brian was killed, but was resurrected by Merlyn. After some months, with his part in the quest concluded, Brian was despatched back to Earth by the revivified King Arthur along with his new sidekick Jackdaw the elf. However, a collision in the limbo between worlds with a mysterious time traveller knocked the pair off course and they ended up in the strange parallel world called Earth-238. Braddock was now in a new costume and had gained super strength, several inches in height and a lot of extra muscle thanks to Merlyn's magicks. Brian spent some months on this world, battling lunatics like the Crazy Gang and becoming embroiled in the schemes of the mystery woman named Saturnyne, before the reality-warping mutant Mad Jim Jaspers unleashed chaos on the planet. First Jackdaw and then Captain Britain himself were murdered by the cyborg killing machine known as The Fury, even as the world began to crumble. Resurrected again back on his own Earth by Merlyn, Brian discovered that his home, Braddock Manor — which he'd seen bombed to the ground by the agency S.T.R.I.K.E. (Special Tactical Reserve for International Key Emergencies) some years before — was still intact, its destruction only an illusion generated by the Mastermind computer. Taming the computer, he fought Slaymaster again, and was then recruited by the parahuman mercenaries called the Special Executive to rescue Saturnyne, who had been marked for execution by her employers, the Dimensional Development Court, for failing to save Earth-238. Brian, Saturnyne and the Special Executive, alongside Betsy Braddock and Captain UK (Brian's counterpart on Earth-238, who had escaped the purges in which that world's superheroes had been killed by the Fury years before) went on to defeat both the Fury and another version of Mad Jim Jaspers, his original battle with the Jaspers of Earth-238 having apparently been a practice run organized by the scheming Merlyn. However, Merlyn himself was apparently killed while protecting Brian from the Fury. Brian returned home and resumed his career as Captain Britain, meeting and falling in love with the elemental shape-changer Meggan and facing foes such as the Technet along the way, but also being manipulated by both Mastermind and the Resources Control Executive, the government agency which had replaced STRIKE. For a time, just after the apparent death of his corrupt brother Jamie Braddock, Brian quit his rôle as Captain Britain in disgust at being constantly used by the RCX. Meggan and he went to live in a lighthouse. The RCX responded by giving Betsy a version of Brian's power-enhancing suit and making her the new Captain Britain. Weeks later, Betsy was targeted by Slaymaster (in the employ of the Vixen), who blinded her. Brian, enraged, killed Slaymaster by caving his head in with a boulder and resumed the identity of Captain Britain. (Betsy would go on to receive a pair of bionic eyes and join the American mutant superheroes known as the X-Men, under the code name Psylocke.) Eventually settling his differences with old nemesis Dai Thomas, Brian continued to be England's foremost protector. He also assisted Thomas and various others as an unofficial member of the Knights of Pendragon, and teamed up with the Black Knight again to aid the shapeshifting Plasmer. Later, following the apparent deaths of the X-Men, Brian and Meggan would join the X-Men affiliated but British based super team 'Excalibur', with whom they remained for some years, Brian briefly adopting the alternate identity of 'Britanic' after being lost in the timestream for several months. Merlyn also returned during this time, as did the Technet. Brian eventually became Captain Britain again, and he and Meggan married even as Excalibur broke up. They faced Mastermind again, on Otherworld (where Brian's father turned out to have come from) and Brian was for a time the ruler of that realm, his place on Earth as Captain Britain taken by a woman named Kelsey Leigh, later called Lionheart. Brian and Meggan have now returned to Earth and, following a stint with a reformed Excalibur, Captain Britain is now a member of the Government task force MI13 and of the Secret Avengers. He and Meggan now have a daughter, Maggie Braddock, who has superhuman intelligence. Braddock Manor is now the Braddock Academy, a school for young superhumans resident in the UK. | Powers = Super strength; flight; enhanced durability; senses which are "acute to the point of being uncanny" (according to Wardog). Can hold his breath for longer than a normal human. | Abilities = Building a radiation detector, a bathysphere and a sonar scanner; computer skills; armed and unarmed combat. | Strength = Superhuman class 100. | Weaknesses = His powers depend on concentration, so he is vulnerable if his concentration is disrupted (for instance by mind control or by a sonic weapon). | Equipment = (Formerly) Quarterstaff which projected a force field; later Star Sceptre which enabled him to fly; Amulet of Right which transformed him into Captain Britain; later, power suit which projected a force field and augmented his now internalized powers of strength, flight and enhanced durability. | Transportation = He can fly. | Weapons = (Formerly) Quarterstaff, which on one occasion ([[Captain Britain Vol 1 18|''Captain Britain #18]]) displayed the ability to project a force blast. His power suit's force field could also be used as an offensive weapon, if expanded at sufficient speed. | Notes = *Merlyn claims to have appeared to Captain Britain as an elderly, paternal figure because Captain Britain was looking for a father substitute after his own father's untimely death. *All of the events recounted above after the formation of Excalibur were recounted in titles published by Marvel US, who 'adopted' Captain Britain following the cancellation of his second Marvel UK series in February 1986 (see Captain Britain (Comics). * Captain Britain has also appeared in several original stories published by Panini UK who now hold the licence to use the Marvel UK name. These stories do not form part of the character's official continuity. | Trivia = Just before the debut of Marvel UK's Captain Britain, IPC almost published a character by the same name in order to pre-empt them. The strip never got off the drawing board. | Wikipedia = | Links = }} See also: Captain Britain at the Marvel Wiki. Category:Marvel UK Category:Superheroes Category:Avengers Members Category:Resurrected characters Category:Alan Moore/Writer Category:Steve Parkhouse/Writer Category:Alan Davis/Penciler Category:Mike Collins/Writer Category:Alan Davis/Artist Category:Truly British Heroes! 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